The Red Rocket. The Hound of Glory. The Dog Dick of Shame. The dreaded 24” short claw. Never, ever use these. I know, I know, these things wash up in Monster Camps and tend to stick there like the idea that tacos and beans will make a great Saturday meal; throw them away.

The hobby has grown too damn large for me to reliably keep track of (dangling participle). For every shout-out I’d give games like NERO Mass for running a 150+ attendee National Event or Madrigal for concluding a 16 year plot-arc, I’d probably overlook Mythical Journeys contribution as a key entry-point into the hobby as a whole or Dystopia Rising’s 17 event season (ok, it’s more like 12…but that’s a LOT of events).

If there’s one thing LARPing in New England showed us this past year was that the hobby is growing and fracturing at an increasingly frenetic pace, and also that crowd-funding your game is the space to be in.

So what are the most serious injuries you have ever seen in your 15 years of LARPing? Generally, people wrenching their knees, ankles or backs before the start of game. Another chap made a leaping, diving attack and landed wrong on his arm, breaking it (or was it a wrist?). Oh, someone wearing shorts tore through a mass of brambles and cut up his legs pretty good.